PLAY AND DEFEND BETTER: FOR IMPROVING PLAYERS 3

Right Opening

The following 11 HCP 3 loser hand was reported in the post in the Latest News as having been incorrectly opened 2Club-small  and the pair were penalized for doing so as it was stated they must have at least 13 HCP to bid 2Club-small legally:

 

Spade-small AKQT982

Heart-small 2

Diamond-small QT932

Club-small -

 

The post doesn’t clarify if the 2Club-small opening bid was alerted but it is assumed that it was not and they were playing a Green system.

There are a number of issues raised that would benefit from further discussion.

First, I wish to clarify that I am not a qualified Director and anything written from this point is my opinion only. I am also not in any way criticizing the directing decision made as I don't know all of the circumstances. If any qualified director wants to clarify I would be happy they do so. 

 

Secondly, what does the 2Club-small opening bid mean and when can it not be alerted for a Green system?

The Wikipedia definition for a strong 2Club-small opening is:

The strength requirements for the 2♣ bid differ slightly in different systems. In all cases they show a hand which is close to game forcing. For balanced hands, a 2♣ bid shows 22 or more points in Standard American (Yellow Card), and 23 or more points in standard Acol. For unbalanced hands, the typical strength is about 9 or more playing tricks, or 3 losers or less if using Losing-Trick Count.

This definition is notable in that it doesn’t limit the minimum number of HCP for a distributional hand as the NZ bridge manual currently does for Green Systems. If a partnership adopted this definition for their game forcing 2Club-small opening this would be a brown sticker convention using the NZ bridge manual definition and require the 2Club-small bid to be alerted and limit its use to A point team style events.

Therefore if a partnership wishing to play in other events modified the Wikipedia definition so as to not use the  2Club-small opening for unbalanced near game value hands with less than 13 HCP to meet NZ bridge manual definition so they could play a Green system then they would have to open the rest of the possible near game value hands as either 1 level opening bids or as pre-empts.

Does their 2Club-small opening bid then require to be alerted? Let’s say that it doesn’t. Then from the definition for psyches from NZ bridge manual and for prohibiting their use it would appear a 2Club-small unalerted opening that only contained 11 HCP can sometimes be opened legally and deliberately and should not be penalized under these circumstances as this would not be a gross misrepresentation of the playing strength of the hand.

A "psyche" is a deliberate gross misrepresentation of your high card strength and/or the length of one of your suits (Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2007, page 3). Note: The key words are "deliberate and "gross". To make a wrong bid accidentally is not a "psyche" – it is not deliberate. To shade an opening bid by a couple of points is not a "psyche" – it is not gross.

It is prohibited to "psyche" any conventional opening call that has as one of its options a hand that (a) may contain 13 or more HCP, and (b) is unlimited, and (c) does not show either a specific suit or a balanced hand.

While the example for what is not gross is for shading an opening bid (reducing points) by a couple of points it would follow upgrading a hand by a couple of points with compensating distributional values to bid 2Club-small would also not be gross. To be gross, I would, therefore, consider a call must be deficient by at least a King (i.e. 3 or more points) without compensating distributional values. It would be interesting to get a director's ruling whether this view was correct.

So it would appear, if it is accepted a 2Club-small opening  can be opened without alerting if it may have an unbalanced 3 loser hand  with 13 or more HCP for Green systems, that it may then be legal to deliberately open 2Club-small without alerting with only 11 HCP with a 3 loser hand from time to time if it were the partnership agreement that their 2Club-small opening may contain a distributional near game strength game hand with 13 or more HCP as this would not be a psyche bid by definition; but it would always be prohibited to open 2Club-small playing a green system if they only had 10 HCP even if they had a 3 loser hand as this would be considered a psyche bid. Their partner must always act as though they had a minimum of 13 HCP.

So must a 2Club-small opening bid using a Green system always have to have at least 13 HCP?

 

 Thirdly for clarity,

I don’t believe the post is entirely correct in the assertion that a 2Club-small opening could only be made with greater than 13 HCP if not using a blue (precision style) system. There are three other exceptions allowed by the NZ bridge manual that probably should have been mentioned for completeness:

Green systems

There is another allowable option for a 2Club-small opening in the NZ bridge manual but which would have to be alerted:

Any 2♣ or 2♦ opening that may show a weak hand (<10 HCP) in either major (6 cards) only or as an option among any number of strong hand types.

Red systems

A 2Club-small opening with less then 13 HCP would be allowed for a Red system if this is alerted in limited circumstances. The Red system could be an otherwise Green system with a Brown sticker convention where the partnership were following the Wikipedia definition with no minimum HCP point limitation. Although this system could only be used in A point team style competitions.

 Yellow systems (highly unusual methods)

 

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 31 Oct 2018 at 04:52PM

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  1. NICK WHITTEN01 Nov 2018 at 08:00AM

    Hi Sean

    I don't know the circumstances either but I AM prepared to criticise the ruling, which IMHO is an abomination to put it mildly

    But I will stand corrected if someone can say:

    [a] Where is that rule which says an Acol 2C opening must have at least 13 HCP?

    and

    [b] What should a player open with S: AKxxxxxxxxx   H: A   D: x  C: void if a 2C opening is illegal?

  2. SEAN LYNCH01 Nov 2018 at 09:49AM

    Hi Nick,

    These clauses from the NZ bridge manual may be helpful for the discussion:

    The definition for   Green systems - all natural systems (page D45 New Zealand bridge Manual)  is:

    (d) Green Systems ? all natural systems The following conventions/treatments are specifically allowed. However, this is not an exhaustive list and, if a question regarding a convention not specifically covered is raised, then analogy may be made to the type of conventions/treatments allowed for.

    Openings:

    • Any 2♣ or 2♦ opening that shows a strong hand and is forcing for at least one round of bidding; and except
    • Any 2♣ or 2♦ opening that may show a weak hand in either major (6 cards) only or as an option among any number of strong hand types.

    And page D44 gives the definition for a strong hand:

    24.6 Classification of systems

    (a) Definitions

    Average Hand                     A hand containing 10 HCP with no distributional values.

    Weak                                   High-card strength below that of an average hand.

    Strong                                  High-card strength a King or greater than that of an average hand (i.e. 13+ HCP).

  3. SEAN LYNCH01 Nov 2018 at 11:51AM

    Nick,

    I think the answer to your question b) is that technically with 11 HCP I would argue you are allowed to open this hand 2Club-small using a Green system as it is only 2 HCP below 13 HCP nominally required for this opening bid and so can't be considered a psyche bid.

     

    However, if playing a Green system if not ever allowed to open an Acol 2Club-small with less than 13 HCP then the answer is either 1Spade-small or 6Spade-small. For the 1Spade-small opening because as at least one opponent will have a void in Spade-small it is unlikely to be passed out if partner has less than 6 HCP and then opener may make some sort of game forcing bid (like repeated cue bidding of opponents suits) to convey their playing strength to partner. The problem for opener is that although 6Spade-small is almost 100% guaranteed to make you want to know if partner has the ADiamond-small to bid 7Spade-small so a straight opening bid to 6Spade-small might not allow the partnership to get to 7Spade-small. It may only seem easier if bidding is allowed to start with a game forcing bid as an advantage of opening 1Spade-small is you have already shown your suit.

    The possibly bigger question for Acol players is what do you open for these hands that are guaranteed to make game that would all meet the definition for an Acol 2Club-small of being unbalanced 3 loser or less hands:

    Hand A                                                    Hand B                                 Hand C

    Spade-small AKxxxxxxxxx                                      Spade-smallAKQJxxxxxxx                  Spade-smallAKQxxxxxxxx 

    Heart-small xx                                                       Heart-small QJ                                   Heart-smallJx

    Diamond-small -                                                         Diamond-small -                                       Diamond-small -

    Club-small -                                                          Club-small -                                      Club-small -

    Again if partner has AHeart-small or KQHeart-small (or possibly KHeart-small) you want to be in 6Spade-small, or if they have AKHeart-small (or possibly AQHeart-small) in 7Spade-small.

    Although they are effectively the same 2 loser hand if playing a green system you would only be allowed to open hand B using 2Club-small and the other two would have to be 1Spade-small or a pre-empt.

     Should all these hands be allowed to open a game forcing 2Club-small bid?

    Hopefully we can get a qualified director to clarify but It may well be that to play an Acol 2Club-small opener that allowed any 3 loser hand with less than 13 HCP that the Acol 2Club-small convention must be declared a Brown sticker convention and any Acol system that uses this convention be declared a Red system that may only be used for open A pts teams style events?

  4. SEAN LYNCH17 Nov 2018 at 01:58PM

    Looking at the limited number of system cards that have been posted for the open pairs who will be representing their regions at the inter-provincials later this month none of the system cards for those pairs playing natural systems that I have seen so far are declaring their 2Club-small game forcing opening bids are brown sticker conventions and that their systems are red, or alternatively listing the minimum HCP to be 13+ HCP for non balanced hands even though they have provided HCP ranges for their other opening bids.

    Interesting ........

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